Under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, any employer whose workers are regularly exposed to noise at or above 85 dB(A) is legally required to implement a formal hearing surveillance programme. That means structured, documented audiometric testing, carried out by a competent person, in a compliant environment, with records that can be produced to the HSE on request.
The Part Nobody Talks About
Audiometric testing carried out in a standard office, meeting room, or clinical space without acoustic treatment will not reliably meet BS EN ISO 8253-1, the international standard that governs the maximum permissible ambient noise levels in an audiometric testing environment.
HVAC noise, corridor traffic, adjacent rooms, external plant – all of it interferes with test accuracy. A result obtained in a non-compliant space is not just imprecise. It can mask a real threshold shift. It can trigger unnecessary clinical follow-up for a false positive. In both cases, the employer is exposed.
For occupational health providers, the stakes are higher still. Clinical governance frameworks require that testing environments are validated and documented. Results that cannot be shown to have been obtained in a BS EN ISO 8253-1 compliant environment put providers in a professionally and contractually difficult position.
The Regulatory Direction of Travel
Audiometric testing carried out in a standard office, meeting room, or clinical space without acoustic treatment will not reliably meet BS EN ISO 8253-1, the international standard that governs the maximum permissible ambient noise levels in an audiometric testing environment.
HVAC noise, corridor traffic, adjacent rooms, external plant – all of it interferes with test accuracy. A result obtained in a non-compliant space is not just imprecise. It can mask a real threshold shift. It can trigger unnecessary clinical follow-up for a false positive. In both cases, the employer is exposed.
For occupational health providers, the stakes are higher still. Clinical governance frameworks require that testing environments are validated and documented. Results that cannot be shown to have been obtained in a BS EN ISO 8253-1 compliant environment put providers in a professionally and contractually difficult position.
The Right Environment Makes the Difference
Selecting a compliant audiometric booth is not complicated but it does require asking the right questions. Independent certification, verified noise reduction data across frequency bands, deployment speed, space footprint, stock availability. These are the criteria that determine whether a booth will hold up to clinical governance scrutiny and HSE review.
We have put together a detailed guide covering all of it – the regulatory framework, the sectors most exposed, how hearing surveillance is delivered in practice, and an objective checklist for evaluating any audiometric booth.
Download our Occupational Hearing Surveillance Report below.
Speak to a QuietStar specialist
QuietStar are UK specialists in architectural acoustics and industrial noise control, based in Fleet, Hampshire. The QS1 and QS1 Max audiometric testing booths are CE marked and independently tested to BS EN ISO 8253-1, available from UK stock in flat-pack or pre-assembled form. Get in touch with us today.
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